Wow. In part one of my article, I asked for your thoughts on a clearly divisive and complicated issue. Boy did I ever get some. I heard from you, our loyal readers. I heard from ex-military vets. I heard from former recruits. I even heard from Al-Jazeera! But, perhaps most notably I heard from fellow PNG’er Pete Irace in the form of his counter-point article: The Case AGAINST Video Games as an Army Recruitment Tool.

Get ready Pete, this one may go on for a while.

While I respect the amount of research you put into your rebuttal, I can’t help but come away with one overriding impression that I took away from your piece: disappointment.

Let me start by saying I whole heartedly support our country’s right to peaceful protest, which is precisely what hundreds are doing for a second time at the new state of the art $12 million Army Experience Center in Philadelphia.

You just woke up PNG’s sleeping giant by stepping into my territory. Never have I seen something on this site that I have taken more umbrage with than your article Dave. Nothing personal, but I can’t let this article go without ripping it into tiny pieces.

Mere hours after partaking in the official worst idea ever, that is embibing Everclear during our insane E3 podcast special, I’M the one tasked with having to bring you something relevant. Are you kidding me? I’m half f***ing blind! Well, screw it, I’m taking the easy way out and bringing you even more E3 video goodness.

But you know me. I’m not one to talk about what everyone else is talking about. I set my own trends. Besides, Jim already covered that stuff yesterday (since I can’t link to three seperate articles, just scroll down a bit you lazy jerk).

In the tradition of my ongoing series “Buried Gaming Treasure” I’m bringing you videos of the stuff that was at Los Angeles but is not getting quite the hype of the big boys. This could very well be the future of hidden gems. You didn’t see these in press conference keynotes, but you’re seeing them here. Enjoy!

Last week we brought you five of the best games you may have missed out on since Y2K. Thanks to us you can never again claim that you never had the pleasure of being a grafitti spraying sky pirate squirrel with horns in your head battling the world with music. This week we push further ahead to give you five more of the 21st Century’s best buried gaming treasure.

Well this is a first. Sure we’ve seen games based on movies. We’ve even seen movies based on games. However, I’m fairly definitely positive we’ve never seen a movie based on a game that was supposed to be based on the same movie only the movie never came out but now it will because of the game. Normally something that complicated would have surely ripped open a hole in time and space. Luckily though (I can only assume) we were saved at the zero hour by this site’s all time favorite human being, none other than Sir Vin Diesel.

Turns out Wheelman, starring our chiseled savior, is going to be a movie after all and be directed by John Singleton. Originally, the game was supposed to coincide with a movie of the same name, however the movie ended up being canned while the game still came out as planned to lukewarm reviews. This was a no-brainer as Vin Diesel + movie + cars = crap ton o’ cash.

Details on a new Tony Hawk game are expected soon. Score another win for my crystal ball! It looks as if Activision has used the previously unheard of two year layoff to change things up a bit. So much so that apparently you won’t be using a controller to play the game if you believe GameTrailers’ Geoff Keighley who says you are “not going to be playing Tony Hawk with a controller in your hands.” Could be that this one is a Wii exclusive that will be using the Wii Fit balance board. More likely though is that Activision is crafting a skateboard peripheral for the 360 and PS3 crowds. We’ll find out May 15th.

Speaking of Activision, looks like they’ll be combining two of my favorite things in the whole wide world: Modern Warfare and LeBron James. World premier gameplay footage of the newest Call of Duty… errr Modern Warfare 2 will drop during the NBA Eastern Conference finals. Perhaps the first look at this year’s sure to be best seller is the only thing that could possibly upstage my Cleveland Cavaliers.

We’ll leave you with a couple videos that have surfaced that should not be viewed at work or in front of younglings. The first is from the fine folks at BioWare. It shows off some gameplay for Dragon Age Origins to the sounds of a potty mouthed Marilyn Manson. Curious.

Second, and this is hard to watch, actual honest to goodness Duke Nukem Forever gameplay footage. It was one thing to know this game was never coming out when I didn’t think they were actually making it in the first place. but to think they might have actually had something going (according to former 3D Realms employee Bryan Brewer) just breaks my heart. (Caution: Boobs)

And, what the hell, I’ll give you the 15 appetizing seconds of Modern Warfare 2 that wets the appetite for the official world premier.

Been frustrated at the lack of new good releases lately? We have. But do not despair dear reader, Pixels and Grids has your back in this economic cesspool. Behold the best games of the last ten years that may have been lost in the shuffle of Grand Theft Autos, Halos, and Call of Dutys (duties?). So grab just a few bones and grab these gems that you may not have caught in their glory days.

These buried treasures are limited to the current century for the sake of a concise article and the fact that I don’t reasonably expect you to go trolling for Super Nintendo games.

I hate your face. Yup, you. At any given time if I see you walking down the street, rest assured I am fantasizing about defiling your cranium in fantastically diabolical ways. I would ruin your face with my unrelenting anger. However, I never do as consequences and repercussions forbid me from doing so. Thankfully the best possible outlet to vent my hostilities has been bestowed upon my XBOX 360 (also coming to the PS3) and it’s name is UFC 2009: Undisputed. And, while your face remains safe, Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell’s and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua’s have been wrecked over and over again.

If I were to tell you that your face will be melted off (officially) on Rocktober October 13th how would you spend your remaining months? By playing Tim Schafer’s entire back catalogue of gaming classics of course! Not hip to “The Year of the Schafer?” Hop on over to Logan’s post so you too can be a cool kid.

The man himself is pumped that his newest gift to the world finally has a release date, eagerly exclaiming “Wooo! Having an official release date is awesome! And how cool is it that EA threw down the dough to have the name of an entire month changed to Rocktober?”

Cool? I guess. But apparently King Schafer has not heard that we media titans Pixels and Grids have dedicated the entire year to his greatness. So start playing Secret of Monkey Island now or risk having your face only partially melted off. That would just look silly.

We’d like to reward you for being awesome. No seriously, YOU are so much cooler than every other reader we have that we want you to have a free copy of Fallout 3 for the PC! Just head on over to Josh’s post and guess the keyword. You are probably the only one smart enough to know it. You get one guess per day. Here is a convenient link to take you straight to it… don’t it beat scrolling?

Welcome to Pixels and Grids!

I'm currently in the process of giving PNG a new look. Expect a more personal one man blog type atmosphere with at least one article, review, or interview per week. All previous authors still have access and you may find a special guest post from them every once in awhile. Bro-Downs will only be recorded and posted on special occasions. While a shell of it's former self, PNG is going to stick around just for pure entertainment and diversionary value. Pop by every once in a while and as always, keep rolling those 20's.
James Jones